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Summary: The IRS becomes the 13th U.S. government agency that has been confirmed to have the Stingray surveillance devices.

Credits: Produced for Oct. 28, 2015, but can air a few days later.

Notes: The Guardian newspaper is reporting that the Internal Revenue Service in the United States bought several Stingray devices between 2009 and 2012. Stingrays are IMSI-catchers, or cell-site simulators, small devices that pretend to be cellphone towers in order to catch all local metadata and some content from phones which connect to them. Despite their extensive capabilities, they require only a low-level court order called a PEN register, also known as a trap and trace, to grant permission for their use, The Guardian story says. The Harris Corporation, which makes the Stingrays, are ultra-secretive about the devices. An April Guardian report revealed non-disclosure agreements that local police and prosecutors were forced to sign with the FBI before using Stingrays. The documents demanded local authorities withdraw or even drop cases rather than reveal their use as the source of information. In September, The Guardian reported that this withholding of discovery evidence by Baltimore police could lead to 2,000 cases being overturned. The American Civil Liberties Union and various news outlets have now shown that at least 13 federal agencies have Stingrays now. Nate Wessler, an ACLU attorney told the Guardian: The info showing that they are using Stingrays is generally consistent with the kinds of investigative tactics that they are engaging in, and it shows the wide proliferation of this very invasive surveillance technology.